Good on the bloody yanks. Even without Green help, they totally deserved this draw. But I don't see them going much further if they don't fix those passes on the midfield and stop trying to play from the center.

I was barracking for the Queen. But guess I'll have to wait for another game. This one was embarrassing.

Originally Posted by brewbuck:Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

I don't think it's realistic to expect USA to remain a bit player forever. Look at the money that's being poured into their soccer. Sooner or later they are gonna put up a decent fight.

Except this game wasn't about how good they were but how badly England played. Green was unlucky at the end of the day but I think that even without his help Dempsey would've found a chink. Heskey's tactics of "give-me-the-ball-or-I'll-throw-myself-at-you" are gonna leave England a man down in this tournament. Rooney gradually came out of his shell but it was too late by then.

The ITV (UK) coverage showed a shot of David Beckham with his eyebrow raised all the way, quite funny yet I knew exactly how he felt.

I don't think it's realistic to expect USA to remain a bit player forever. Look at the money that's being poured into their soccer. Sooner or later they are gonna put up a decent fight.

Yeah. Their qualification season was nothing but stellar and through the recent years they have been accumulating impressive results. After Mexico, USA is the second CONCACAF team with more participation in the World Cup Finals. And they beat Spain just last year.

I'm all for new teams to emerge. USA and those impressive South Koreans are two of the most exciting newcomers to world class football. But I really didn't like at all seeing USA on this game. They have a solid team. Their tactical positioning was unblemished during the whole game. A team that rarely makes tactical mistakes is a team to be careful around. And USA is that team. But their midfield is terrible. Rarely would they go on to attack without losing the ball in the midfield. With some merit to England. But there were too many bad passes. I didn't like also see them not using their flanks either.

1. Portugal (duh!)
2. South Korea (I just love those little devils in red despite sending us home in 2002)
2. England (my foreign favorite team since childhood. Although the Three Lions are a shadow of their former glory)

Originally Posted by brewbuck:Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

Wouldn't that mean Algeria would be the first one out? And then the final match would be Uruguay and USA, and depending on whether or not you used the acronym for United States of America either team could win.
And clearly that is a source of conflict - it might even start a wa... I mean contingency operation.

I watched football for the first time in my life, really. I can only say I'm somewhat proud that the announcers gushed so much about how competent we were, and that if the world cup should come here for any reason there will be no perpetual noise-making trumpets. Damn it all.

Could be worse, you could be an Australian supporter and watched both the Germans and the card happy referee maul your team.

That red on Cahill was absolutely disgraceful. That referee removed the best Australian player (possibly from the whole competition) over nothing. A blemish in what was so far a good competition regarding referees.

But you also know very well that who mauled your team was your coach. How could he ever put Cahill in that position? He's a striker for pete's sake. Not a midfielder. And to pay the whole match without strikers? What was in Verbeek's mind is anyone to guess. But that's not how Australia played football throughout the great qualification season they had. In their first game on the world cup, Verbeek did the most bizarre tactic I've seen in years. And what does he do when he is being criticized by everyone, including former players and other coaches? He defends it! He says it was a good choice! They really need to allow for coach replacements in these competitions...

And Culina, what a great player he is. But forcing him to play in the center totally blew him out of the game... and Garcia! Garcia playing as a striker made me open my mouth a few times. But worst, in a 4-4-2 that Verbeek never used before and on a 4-4-2 without actually any striker because the two lead man were playing close to the midfielders. Australia was mauled, novacain, because Verbeek was your coach and decided that in a World Cup match the best tactic against Germany is 4-6 and that strikers should play as midfielders and midfielders should play as strikers.

Sorry mate.

Last edited by Mario F.; 06-15-2010 at 11:54 AM.

Originally Posted by brewbuck:Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

You make it sound like the Germans had no part in it.
I think that the Germans are (by far) the most dangerous team I have seen play so far. England better finish first, to avoid playing Germany in the first round of 16.

That aside, I agree, Pim did not do a good job, not even close.

Australia has a deserved reputation for playing hard, agressive football (as is the Asian style). Teams take advantage of this and play it up for the referees (the Germans got 2 yellow cards for diving against Australia).

Cahill being suspended agaist Ghana (and possibly also Serbia) is the big problem. We really need to beat Ghana to have any hope of getting out of the group stages and having our best striker out will not help.

At least this World Cup the ref did not give the same opposition player 3 yellows before sending them off.....

"Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
Friedrich Nietzsche

"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
George Best

Good to see Australia going back to its old football that took them on a brilliant ride through the qualification. It's a shame the goal average didn't allow them to proceed to the next phase. The defeat by 4 goals with Germany proved fatal.

Well done on the Yanks. First place on their group ahead of England. An historical day on USA football, or soccer as you call it. It was a tough group. To see USA jump from 3rd place to 1st in their group on the very last minutes of the game was quite amazing. And by finishing 1st they avoided Germany and will be playing Ghana on the next round. An opponent they shown they can beat.

Originally Posted by novacain

You make it sound like the Germans had no part in it.

They had. They thanked the gift.

Originally Posted by brewbuck:Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.